What in the world am I supposed to do?
After learning the deeds of Potimas and the elves, I realized that instead of protecting my precious students, I had only put them in danger.
And that everything I’ve done all this time has been in vain.
Then, before I had time to dwell on my regrets, this calamitous world quest arose.
I don’t want to think about anything anymore.
I just want to scream and cry, curl up under a blanket, and fall asleep.
And then wake up back in my own bed in Japan.
I want to open my eyes and feel the relief of knowing that this was all just a bad dream.
But none of that is going to happen.
This is reality, not a bad dream.
So there’s nowhere to run.
All I can do is hug my knees to my chest and try to close my heart and mind.
“Ms. Oka! Please, get a hold of yourself!”
Yet this situation won’t even allow me that much.
Miss Kudo grabs my hand, forcing me to my feet.
“Can’t we just fly away?!”
“I dunno how to control this thing!”
“I found the button that shoots laser beams! Fire, fire!”
My students’ shouts echo around the cockpit.
We’re currently inside a UFO-like flying vehicle that the elves apparently created.
The Demon Lord used this to get us out of the elf village.
Then she left, telling us we could use it however we wanted.
Tagawa and Kushitani declared that they were joining the ebony god’s side and left, and Kusama said he was going to check in with the Word of God church. Most of the remaining reincarnations have nowhere else to go since they spent most of their lives in the elf village.
Left with no direction, the reincarnations gathered aboard the UFO to have a meeting about what to do next.
Then, out of nowhere, monsters attacked the UFO.
More monsters kept showing up, and now here we are.
“Dammit! Why are there so many of them?!”
“Maybe because this is a product of Taboo?”
Why would all these monsters start attacking the UFO?
Probably because it’s an advanced technological weapon that shouldn’t exist in this world.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the monsters were programmed to be hostile toward such things.
Monsters are aggressive toward humans, but I’ve never seen nor heard of them attacking all at once with such determination, heedless of their different monster species.
Or perhaps the world quest had some effect on the monsters, too, causing them to attack.
It could even be a combination of both.
In the cockpit, my students scramble madly, trying to figure out how to control the UFO.
They seem to have at least found the defense controls, shooting beams from the UFO to mow down monsters.
Normally, that would be enough to make the other monsters scatter and flee; instead, they become even more aggressive.
A large monster slams against the UFO with a loud crash.
Since this UFO is much bigger than the monster, the impact doesn’t reach us in the cockpit, but the students still look shaken.
This must be a shocking experience for them since they never encountered any kind of violence in the elf village.
“Ms. Oka, please help us find a manual and figure out how to fly this thing! Your fellow elves built it, right?!”
Miss Kudo leads me over to what looks like a control panel and presses me into the seat.
But I didn’t even know that the elves could make such things, nor do I have any idea how to control it myself.
Still, time refuses to wait for me, and I can do nothing but watch blankly as my students frantically fire back at the monsters.
I really am a failure as a teacher…
I’ve got no words of wisdom for them in their time of need, no energy to do anything at all.
My mind is bizarrely blank, robbing me of any desire to move.
I can’t do this anymore.
“Ms. Oka!”
“Forget it, class rep! We’ve got bigger fish to fry right now!”
“But…!”
Kudo and another student are arguing about something.
But I still can’t move.
I don’t want to.
I’ve persevered long enough already.
And all of that was for nothing.
My efforts were in vain.
So clearly there’s no point in even trying.
Why bother moving when I’m clearly not good for anything?
“Oh god…”
I pull my knees up into the chair and cry.
I’m much too old to let my students see me in such a pathetic state, yet I don’t even feel any shame.
My mind must have gotten just as childish as my small elf body.
“Ah! There’s someone outside?!”
The surprised shout prompts me to look at the screen, where I see two people fighting the monsters as if to protect the UFO.
It’s a man using his shield to knock the monsters back, while a woman shoots magic from behind him.
Aren’t those Shun’s friends, Hyrince and Anna?!
There are way too many monsters for them to handle, even if Hyrince is a former member of the hero’s party and Anna is an experienced mage.
“Ms. Oka?!”
That thought prompts my body to move on its own.
Even though I’ve been sitting here refusing to do anything.
I run from the cockpit and toward the entrance of the UFO.
Then I open the hatch, jump outside, and realize I don’t have any weapons.
But I can still use magic.
“Get down, please!”
Sprinting up behind Hyrince and Anna, I cast a spell.
A fearsome gust of wind swallows up a swathe of monsters, clearing a path.
“Quick, come inside!”
“Don’t worry about us! Just hurry and take off!”
“We don’t know how to fly it! Please, come in with us! It should at least be safer than outside!”
“You what?! Ugh, damn her! She couldn’t even show you that much before she left?!”
Hyrince curses as he grabs Anna’s hand and comes running.
The monsters that avoided the wind blast chase after them, but Anna and I use our magic to hold them off.
We manage to make it back to the still-open hatch of the UFO, and all three of us jump inside.
Just as Hyrince reaches up to close the hatch, a monster tries to jump in after us.
I knock it back with another wind spell.
Then Hyrince pulls the hatch shut.
“Whew. Wait, no, I can’t catch my breath just yet.”
Hyrince heads deeper into the UFO.
I follow him, a little taken aback by his confident steps.
“That was awesome, Ms. Oka!”
Though I’m happy to hear my students cheer when I return to the cockpit, we’re not out of the woods just yet.
“Please keep shooting for now!”
“Yes’m!”
“Right!”
The students turn back to their respective control panels.
“Looks like you’ve finally recovered, Ms. Oka.”
I’m not entirely sure whether Miss Kudo is right about that or not.
I just reacted instinctively, and part of me fears that I might curl up and cry again at any moment.
Ignoring our exchange, Hyrince starts operating one of the control panels.
His hands move quickly, as if he knows exactly how to use it.
“Mr. Hyrince?”
Just as I start to address him, the UFO vibrates once and rises into the air.
“We’re flying?!”
“All of you, hang on to something!”
Hyrince’s shout prompts me to hurry over to the nearest wall.
Immediately, the UFO shoots into the air, shaking off the monsters and taking flight.
In spite of this sudden movement, the cockpit scarcely shakes at all—perhaps a testament to the elves’ technology.
Even if I hadn’t grabbed on to anything, I don’t think I would have lost my balance.
The ground shrinks beneath us.
Soon, the monsters are out of sight.
The students breathe a sigh of relief as they see this.
“Phew. Just in time.”
Hyrince, too, lets his shoulders slump in relief.
“Erm, Mr. Hyrince, who are you really…?”
Why in the world did he know how to operate this UFO?
Hyrince catches the meaning in my question.
And his response shakes me to my core.
“Ah, right. I guess there’s no use hiding it anymore. I am Hyrince Quarto, and that is no lie. But I have another face, as well. I’m also a part of Güliedistodiez, the administrator of this planet whom the world quest calls the ‘ebony god.’”